Latin alpha

The Latin alphabet ( ɑ / ɑ ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet. In Unicode, it is included as:

  • Lowercase letter: U 0251 latin small letter alpha in the IPA Extensions block
  • Capital Letter: U 2 C6D latin capital letter alpha in block Latin Extended -C

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA ) can be distinguished:

  • The Latin "a" in its open ( " two-story " ) form for the unrounded open front vowel,
  • The closed ( " one-story " ) ɑ ( originally a Greek Alpha ) for the unrounded open back vowel.

The Latin alphabet is also used in Americanism tables Phonetic Alphabet for the low back spread vowel. Here, the uppercase form is used, namely for the corresponding voiceless vowel.

The differentiated as in the IPA letters have been added to the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages ​​as different letters in 1978 in the African reference alphabet and it later. This was originally a Greek Alpha characters from IPA recorded as Latin Alpha was a letter of the Latin alphabet. In this context, the uppercase form was introduced as an enlarged form of the small letter in a commonly used spelling of a language. With the same meaning as in the IPA letter will be used, inter alia, for the posting of the languages ​​Fe'fe ' and Tigon - Mbembe.

Typography and appearance

The Latin alphabet is its straight (not cursive ) form of a left-wing belly and a plumb stem right (often with an outlet at the bottom right ), each in full letter height. Thus, it is similar in many fonts the placed just cursive form of the small letter "a". In contrast to the Greek Alpha its shape shows no loop shape.

A problem of the representation of this point is that many fonts in italic font style for the "a" a closed ( " one-story " ) use form, and that the Latin alphabet as a lowercase letter so in italicized form at all or only with difficulty from the "a" can differ. Remedy can create additional open ( " two-story " ) glyph for cursive "a" in the font that will be automatically selected via " smart font " technologies such as OpenType or Graphite if the text as belonging to IPA text or as an African Language is excellent.

References and sources

( based on it for letters with diacritics, inter alia, see list of Latin -based alphabets )

Àà aa aa aa aa aa aa Ää ÂÂ Ǻǻ Ǎǎ Ǟǟ Ǡǡ Ȁȁ ȧ ȧ Ⱥ Ⱥ aa a aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa æ ɑ ɑ ɐ Ǽǽ Ǣǣ ɐ ɒ ɒ

  • Latin letter
Open front unrounded vowel Greek alphabet Open back unrounded vowel Americanist phonetic notation Orthography Tigon language Italic type Graphite (SIL) Arial Times New Roman Gentium Cambria (typeface) Courier (typeface) Consolas Q Latin alphabets
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